Global Voices Online

SASOD, the Guyana-based Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination, publishes on their blog a letter sent to the Kaieteur News acknowledging the progress made in other developing countries towards reducing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and protesting the ineffectiveness of the Ethnic Relations Commission.

On the eve of the second installment in their series on the water crisis in the country, Barbados Free Press publishes what is, to their knowledge, “the most comprehensive list of waterless toilet information published in Barbados.”

Turns out that the local ne'er-do-well is one of Guyana-Gyal's admirers. . . .

Stella Ramsaroop introduces some of the latest additions to the repertoire of rhetorical styles in Guyanese politics, including “Ramotarian dialect”, “Persaudian Grandstanding” and “Ramsaroopian Hyperbole”.

The Big Pharoah, from Egypt, says that Qatari-backed Al Jazeera channel is loved by the Shia of Lebanon and hated by the Shia of Iraq. In return, he claims that the Sunnis of Iraq love Al Jazeera while the Sunnis of Lebanon hate it.

At least 160 people were killed and 260 wounded in a series of coordinated car bombings and mortar attacks in the Shi’ite district of Sadr City, northeast of Baghdad, writes blogger Zeyad in Healing Iraq.
He says the death toll is likely to increase as hospitals in Baghdad struggle to accommodate and provide treatment for the wounded.

Benji Lovitt from Tel Aviv spent two days driving former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres while on a visit to Atlanta, US.

Palestinian Dr Mona Al Farra reports the visit of a top United Nations humanitarian official to Beit Hanoun.
She said residents turned out to see Louise Arbour, the U.N. high
commissioner for human rights, as she toured the town but were not hopeful her visit
would achieve any results.

Blogger Omar, who lives in Canada, says the media - and especially CNN - are biased against Syria in their coverage of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel's assassination.

According to Gbpic,for the first time, two Iranian bloggers, Khabgard & Rooznamehnegarno,are invited to discuss about blogs in Iranian TV [Fa].

Boris Berezovsky's figure in the background makes Copydude skeptical of some aspects of Aleksandr Litvinenko's poisoning story.

Thanks to UNAids, Unicef and Iranian Positive Life Institue [Fa],a blog competition is organised about different subjects such as Women & Aids,Kids & Aids,Life with HIV,False beliefs and Drug Addiction & Aids [Fa].

The Glory of Carniola posts audio of an old lady cursing violently in Croatian - and a music video created from the soundbite.

The Turkish Invasion and Very Russian write about today's very unusual demonstration in Moscow. LJ user 50×50 posts photos.

According to TOL's Belarus Blog, Aleksandr Lukashenko admits to having rigged the last election. Well, sort of.

It has now been over a year since David of Ride for Climate first set off from California to ride throughout Latin America. Here are his latest batch of photos and stories from Peru and Bolivia.

Independence-seeking Kosovo is told to be patient, reports Neretva River.

Eduardo Arcos describes how to install the software for the MIT Labs' One Laptop Per Child [ES] on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Great news for everyone following the story of Maria Estela Godinez, a Mexican high school student who developed a project that “allows people with speech problems to communicate with the world by moving her hands with a special glove that translates finger movements into text and then to speech.” Ricardo Carreón explains why.

Writes Colin Brayton, translating an excerpt from El Universal: “Members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) filed a criminal complaint, charging genocide, forcible disappearance of persons, and human rights violations, against President Vicente Fox and his Secretary of Governance, Carlos Abascal, as well as Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz and members of his cabinet.”

According to news, Fifa suspends Iranian Football (Soccer) team because of alleged government meddling. Kamangir says recently, in his efforts to change everything at his will, Ahmadinejad assigned one of his allies as the head of the sports’ organization. Consequently, to find someone else to blame for Iran’s loss in the World Cup, the head of Iran’s football federation was fired. In the Islamic Republic eyes, this was nothing more than a daily practice of power.

Explaining the inspiration to start a blog, “Bacata” writes, “I decided to set this blog so to allow the English speaking people that are interested in knowing about Colombia have an idea of Colombia. For many people overseas Colombia is a lawless state, which before the war in Afghanistan and the middle-east was one of, if not the most dangerous country in the world. I will try to be as objective as I can about all the topics that i will cover in this blog; since I feel very passionate about some of the topics. I will randomly speak about current issues that affect Colombia, historical events, and the influence the world has on Colombia, and the role that Colombia plays in the “AMERICAN” hemisphere.”

Heading into Ecuador's presidential elections this Sunday, Boz says the race is too close to call.

Thai bridge bogger at Fringer.org has translated thai intellectual Dr. Nidhi Eoseewong's book titled “The Culture of Poverty” from Thai to English. The blogger offers the translation as a free download. The book is a collection of essays that will help anyone interested in Thailand to better understand the culture and the dynamics of Thai society.

Applauding Jamaican dancehall star Sean Paul's triumph at the American Music Awards, caroline.neisha at the Caribbean Beat weblog expresses hopes that Trinidadian artists will one day achieve similar success: “I don't think our culture needs to be validated or recognised by any other culture in order to be valuable… But I do want our local and regional artists to get credit (and monetary reward) where it's due. And unfortunately, those in the Calypso/Soca vein have been a little on the unlucky side (think Harry Belafonte, or the Andrews Sisters).”

The blossoming of Sudanese blogosphere, via Sudanese Thinker.

John Akec argues that the control of both the Senate and House by the Democratic majority after the US mid-term elections is a loss for South Sudan and Darfur, “I am very concerned that the good days of handshake by Sudan opposition leaders with the US president in the Oval Office could soon be numbered.”

The bloggers at Eating Asia discover a new fruit in the streets of Chiang Mai. “Two days later our 60 baht-a-kilo dien taw was ‘very, very' soft and ready to eat. I cut it in half to find two burnished brown seeds and smooth, starchy golden flesh. Dien taw's texture is a cross between that of a rich, dense Haas avocado and cooked butternut squash, and its flavor is quite like the latter”

Are you a Sudanese living abroad? Do you want to go home and serve your country? The UNDP has a special programme for you.

Vireak has a chance encounter with a legendary Khmer dancer. “Neak Kru Em Theay was one of the most famous dancers of the Royal Palace during the 50s to 70s. She has been commonly known as the Tenth dancer or the Tenth Apsara and is the only survivor amongst the ten royal Apsara dancers. “

Afrika-Aphukira redefines development in Malawi, “Ten or so years ago I would have interpreted ‘development’ in a specific way: the sprouting of new, big and tall buildings, and new tarmac roads, in Malawi’s cities, towns and rural areas. In the last six or so years I have come to think of ‘development’ in different ways, to the extent that I have had problems defining it for my own purposes.”

The Salon analyzes the politics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the presidential election results.

Following the announcement of election results in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some angry voters decided to set the Supreme Court offices on fire. Eye on Africa does not get it.

Alexander of neweurasia reports that four activists of the opposition Democratic Party of Tajikistan who were arrested for an unauthorized rally and have now been released say that the government misunderstood their intentions.

Due to economic problems and unreliability and high prices for energy and heating, Kyrgyz Report says that Kyrgyzstan is in for a rough winter.

KZBlog reports on religious and ethnic tolerance in Kazakhstan in the wake of the destruction of the only Hare Krishna community in the country.

Jacobson Attorneys on how South Africans can protect their online content, “I am going to focus on content that is made available online (shared photos, videos, music as well as content on web sites like blogs) although I will probably deal with offline content to a degree.”

Criminal charges have been filed against Neil Watson, the founder of Crime Expo South Africa website, which was taken off-line recently, Crimexposouthafrica reports.

Do you want to help Africa? Cherryflava writes, “Forget poverty, AIDS, TB, malaria and corruption and lets focus on making Africa stinking rich. Keep you charity money, we don't need a handout. But we do need your time and creative business ideas.”

Kosoof, a leading photo blogger and journalist has published a photo of Mansour Osanlou, president of Tehran’s bus drivers syndicate. Kosoof reports that Osanlou was arrested in the streets of Tehran, near Resalat Square, following some shootings by undercover agents.

Chinese law prof blog compares acquittal rate among China, U.S, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

ESWN translates and puts together articles about the arrest of tourists at Three Gorge Dam. To prevent from getting arrest, tourists have to follow the three princples: You must not meet, mention or take photos of the 1 million people displaced by the Three Gorge Dam project.

Qatar Cat is unruffled with the ourcry made over the arrest and questioning of six imams (Islamic religious men), who were off loaded for praying in a plane. He says it isn't something done in planes in the Middle East.

How come the egg yokes are in reddish yellow? Because farmers are feeding chemical to ducks and hens. More and more food security issues were exposed in recent weeks. Zoomimaging urged more monitor and change of consumption habit (zh).

With Parliamentary and Municipal Council elections coming up on November 25, Chanad Bahraini accuses the authorities of gerrymandering, saying that the distribution of constituencies is “outrageously discriminatory.”

Babbling Bahrania calls upon journalists in Bahrain to cover the parliamentary and municipal council elections being held on November 25 to look at issues more pressing than the voting process, including the arrest of two political activists.

Ai Wei Wei reports on a police operation in Beijing Fengtai district in which 500 polices had arrested 800 people for checking their identities. The blogger criticizes the police state practice as violation of harmony and human rights (zh).

Three children have died when a fire engulfed their Manama home, reports Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif. The fire was caused when the children, aged two to five, tried to light a candle because their parents could not afford to pay their electricity bill.

Lucy Widaad from Palestine reports on a woman suicide bomber who killed herself and six others in Gaza.
Widaad admits that a 50-year-old woman doesn't fit the profile of a suicide bomber.

The President of China University of Political Science and Law claimed that harmony rights is the fourth generation human rights concept, the first three stages are: liberation, survival and development (zh). Wang Xiao feng said that such claim looks like a political spoof (zh).